Fifty-four patients, 23 men (43%) and 31 women (57%), with a mean age of 61 years received doxycycline sclerotherapy. Fourteen patients (26%) had breast carcinoma, 24 patients (44%) had lung carcinoma, and 5 (9%) had lymphoma. Eleven patients (20%) had other types of primary tumors (Table 1).
Chest tubes were removed within 5 days in 68% of patients (mean, 4.9 days; range, 2 to 13 days). Total pleural fluid drained ranged from 250 to 9,193 mL (mean, 2,485 mL). At 30 days, 29 patients (54%) were alive, 9 patients (17%) had died, and 16 patients (29%) were unavailable for follow-up. Of the 29 patients who were alive, 10 patients (34%) had a CR, 13 patients (45%) had a PR, and 6 patients (21%) had PD. Of the nine patients who died before 30 days, eight patients had ENR and one patient had EWR.
Four patients had loculated fluid demonstrated by chest radiographs, and each received a single dose of streptokinase. At 30 days, one of these patients had a CR, two had a PR, and one had PD.
One patient had 405 mL of drainage output after the first dose of doxycycline, and thus received a second dose the following day. At 30 days, this patient had a PR. sildenafil citrate pink

Complications from doxycycline sclerotherapy included local chest pain in 11 patients (20%) and nausea in 1 patient (2%). Symptoms also resolved in all cases within 24 h with supportive care.
Comparison Between Response Rates: Analysis of all patients enrolled (n=106) revealed a CR-PR response rate of 40% (n=21) (90% confidence interval [Cl], 29 to 53%) with bleomycin, and a CR-PR response rate of 43% (n=23) (90% Cl, 31 to 55%) with doxycycline. This was not statistically significant (p = 0.846) (Tables 2 and 3).
Analysis of those patients alive at 30 days with a follow-up study (n=58) demonstrated a CR-PR response rate of 72% (n=21) (90% Cl, 56 to 85%) with bleomycin, and a CR-PR response rate of 79% (n=23) (90% Cl, 63 to 91%) with doxycycline. This also was not statistically significant (p = 0.760) (Tables 2 and 3).
In addition, there was no statistically significant relationship between tube duration and response or total amount of fluid drained and response (p=0.152 and p=0.897, respectively).Table 2—Summary of Effusion Response at 30 Days